An
impression appears to prevail in the North that the rebels are preparing
to evacuate Virginia, but I know, or at least I am confident, that such
is not the case. That they will remove their capital I have no doubt,
but you may depend that they will hold Virginia until expelled foot by
foot by the Northern armies. Gen. Lee would not listen for a moment to
the voluntary abandonment of the State, and the Virginia soldiers would
instantly throw down their arms if such a course were determined on.
There is no mistaking about this. And without Lee, and his brother
Virginians, what would become of the rebellion and the Confederacy?

At
the time of Stoneman’s raid in May last, Richmond was considered in
danger, and the citizens were convoked by placards carried about the
streets by Negroes, and other calls, in Capitol Square. Here they were
addressed by Gov. Letcher, Mayor Mayo, and other prominent rebels, who
urged them to form themselves into companies and regiments for defence
of the city. They declared that if the city should be captured, the
State could not be held, and that if the State were abandoned, the
Virginia soldiers would fight no more, and the Confederacy would fall.
Letcher said that the Virginia soldiers would feel, if their State
should be lost, that there was nothing left for them to fight for. They
would not be blind enough to hope that if lost, it could ever be
regained. You may, therefore, depend that the rebels will defend
Virginia with the desperation of despair; but let them be driven beyond
its boundaries, and eight out of ten of the Virginians will gladly avail
themselves of the president’s amnesty proclamation in order to return.
Let Virginia be reclaimed, and the Confederacy will tumble like an
inverted cone.

Desperate
efforts will be made this spring to drive Grant’s army out of Northern
Georgia and Southern Tennessee. The occupation of Chattanooga by the
Unionists created a great consternation among the rebel authorities. The
Secretary of War stormed like a madman. He declared that they might
better have lost Richmond or Charleston than to have allowed the enemy
to gain a foothold at Chattanooga, thus placing at his mercy the fertile
valleys of Northern Georgia and Alabama, and that he must be driven
back, regardless of the cost. The wholesale conscription which is being
mercilessly enforced throughout the Confederacy will enable the rebels
to concentrate an immense army in front of Grant by the 1st of April,
and unless the latter is heavily reinforced, all that has been gained in
that region may be lost.

•••••

Exploded
Theories.—The
rebels, with their accustomed alacrity, we see, are repairing their
railroad communications in Central Mississippi, which were so badly cut
up by the recent raid of Gen. Sherman from Vicksburg to Meridian.
Dispatches from the latter place to the Richmond papers show that the
“crippling” of the enemy by this process is but a temporary
inconvenience, and that he will soon recover from it in Mississippi as
he had already recovered from it in Virginia and elsewhere.

There
are three fanciful theories for putting down the rebellion, otherwise
than by meeting and beating its armies in the field, that were in vogue
at the beginning of the war, but which are now pretty thoroughly
exploded. One was an uprising of the Negroes on plantations in the
cotton States that would compel masters and owners to quit the rebel
army in order to look after life and property at home. The next was the
famous and ever popular starvation theory. The other was the idea that
if we could destroy their lines of communication, the enemy could not
restore them, for want of the necessary labor and material. ->

Now,
whatever expectations we may have entertained in these several respects,
it is presumed nobody will now deny, in the face of past and present
experiences, they are likely to be fulfilled. Negroes will not break
out, as they have not broken out, in insurrection. Their masters will
not starve, and they have not starved. Railroads will not stay, as they
have not stayed, destroyed. It but remains for us then to drop these
delusions–and to go to work and fight, and defeat the great armies
which the rebels have in the field. When that work is actually
accomplished, all will have been accomplished–and we shall no longer
need to destroy railroads nor to invoke on our behalf the auxiliary help
of Gen. Starvation or Gen. Insurrection.–N.
Y. Express, March 23.

•••••

A
Sutler Cobbled.—The
Times of this city says they
had the pleasure yesterday of an interview with Mr. Oliver V. Wagner,
sutler of the 25th New York Battery, who has just returned from a brief
captivity among the rebels. Mr. Wagner accompanied the advance of our
army from Franklin, with an ox team, and was captured on Bayou Bœuf,
between Washington and Cheneyville, on the 23d of March. His team stuck
fast in crossing a stream, and he lost so much time in unloading and
reloading that he fell behind the rear guard, and in endeavoring to
overtake the train, was picked up by a guerrilla squad, who robbed him
of his stores, watch, clothing and money. A diamond ring on one of his
fingers tickled the fancy of one of the captors, but it could not be
taken off. Fortunately it did not occur to the predatory warrior to
amputate the finger, or Mr. Wagner might have lost both ring and finger.
His boots were also made the focus of sundry admiring glances, but it
did not require a second glance to satisfy his exacting friends that
they were too small for any of their feet, and so he was allowed to
retain them.

Mr.
Wagner was taken to a point on the Mississippi river about sixty miles
above Port Hudson, and there paroled and turned loose. He thinks he
walked about 250 miles through the woods and swamps. Lieut. Hamlin, of
the 1st Corps d’Afrique; Lieut. Twiggs, of the 77th Illinois, ordnance
officer to Gen. Ransom’s brigade; private O’Donahue, of the 20th New
York Battery; John Early, of the 96th Ohio; John Mitchell, of the 3d
Massachusetts Cavalry; three privates of the 29th Maine, and another
private of the 3d Massachusetts, who were captured at various times
along the route, were taken along with him. They were all paroled except
Lieut. Hamlin. A sergeant of the 1st Corps d’Afrique was killed at the
time Lieut. Hamlin was captured. Lieut. Hamlin, in company with another
lieutenant and the sergeant, had ridden ahead of the column, and stopped
to wait for it at a church, when they were fired upon. The other
lieutenant made his escape. Wagner came back in a rather dilapidated
condition, with his clothes torn and soiled, and considerably scratched
with the briars. He takes his reverse quite philosophically, and say
that though he didn’t make much out of the trip, he got to see the
country.

MONDAYAPRIL 4,
1864THE
RICHMOND DAILY EXAMINER (VA)

Capture
of a Fleet of Iron-clads.—At
about the hour of 11 a.m.,
on Saturday, after the
members of the Iron-Clad Opera Troupe, performing at Metropolitan Hall,
had assembled for rehearsal, a conscript guard appeared at all the doors
and avenues of escape, ad came down like a wolf on the peaceful company
of “Iron-Clads” gathered within that harbor. They took the big bass
viola; they took the first and second fiddlers; they even took
“bones” and the tambourine; they took them all, about a dozen in
number, and towed them up the street before the Provost Marshal. Here
all, except two or three, exhibited neutral colors–the Lion and
Unicorn and “Maryland, my Maryland”–and were released.1
The several condemned as conscripts were sent forward to the enrolling
officer, who sent them still farther, even unto Camp Lee, from whence
they were released on furlough to fulfill their engagements at the hall
on Saturday evening, to report again at camp yesterday.

The
descent upon the “Iron-Clads” is alleged to have received its
inspiration from the management of the New Richmond Theatre, which does
not tolerate a successful rival in the presentation of the “legitimate
drama” in the same city.

Then
R. D’Orsey D’Ogden, late manager and tragic man at the Theatre, but
now enrolled in the service of the Confederate States at Camp Lee,
determined that as many of his professional brethren as possible should
accompany him to that retreat, probably with his intention of his there
organizing his new band of “Harmonians.” For that reason, after
obtaining a furlough to visit town and settle up business, he caused the
arrest of Mr. T. B. Thorpe, late of the Theatre company, upon the charge
of being a deserter. Mr. Thorpe proved a service of twelve months in the
army and was discharged.

We
do not know that it is the determination of the military authorities to
break up entirely theatrical amusements in Richmond. If so, the
Government will hardly be compensated in the conscript material obtained
for the loss of all rational and harmless amusement for the hundreds of
soldiers daily passing through and detained overnight in the Capital.
Close the legalized placed of amusement, and they will resort to the
brothels and low drinking inlets of the city, and crime, bawdyism, and
rowdyism will flourish again.

•••••

Meeting
of Merchants.—We
understand a meeting of the merchants of Richmond, embracing the dry
goods, provision and grocery, and all of the principal trades that enter
into the supply of articles of prime necessity, was held one day last
week, at which the high prices as prevailing in Richmond and the
possibility of lowering them were the subjects of discussion. Only two
of the merchants present–Messrs. Samuel Price, dry goods merchant,
Main street, and A. Morris, bookseller, Main street–voted to lower the
price of their goods, and undersell the exorbitant market quotations put
upon fabrics in view of the depreciated currency, and the discount of
thirty-three and a third cents upon the old in favor of the new money
issues. Several merchants, whose names, if given, would be recognized as
synonymous with extortion, vehemently opposed any reduction of prices
and contended that the quality and value of their goods had not
depreciated, if the currency had. All of the merchants and tradesmen
present, with the highly honorable, praiseworthy, and patriotic
exceptions above mentioned, contended for the present rates of charges,
and as much more as can be obtained, we suppose. The public will
remember them, discriminating between the few who advocated reduction
and the many who opposed it, and mark the store portals of all with
either their approval or reprobation.

The Exchange of Prisoners.

A
flag of truce is expected from the enemy next Wednesday with returned
prisoners. We learn that there will be exchanged under this flag, on our
side, about one thousand prisoners, the wounded and sick having the
preference in the selection. After this re-installment of the exchange,
it is confidently expected that it will be completed without more
questions, and that the exchange will be dispatched by thousands where
heretofore it has been made by hundreds. The Yankee surplus is large in
officers. There were, some time ago, nearly two thousand officers in
their hands.

•••••

Burglaries
by midnight and
mid-day afford a daily chapter of incidents in the thieving line.

Saturday
night the smoke-house on the premises of Mr. R. M. Smith, one of the
proprietors of the Sentinel
newspaper, corner of Third and Leigh streets, was forcibly entered and
robbed of twelve pieces of bacon and several bushels of potatoes.

The
same night the meat-houses of James Dornia, Twenty-ninth street, between
Main and Franklin streets, on Libby Hill, was entered and despoiled of
between two and three hundred pounds of pickled pork.

The
same night the dwelling of E. J. McCormick, Main street, between
Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, was forced and about one thousand
dollars’ worth of wearing apparel and bed clothing stolen. The inmates
were absent at the time of the invasion.2

The
burglary business accumulating on the hands of the burglars, they have
extended their operations into the day-time.

Saturday,
about noon, the confectionary store of Mr. Sands, corner of Twentieth
and Main streets, was broken open during the momentary absence of the
proprietor, and a considerable quantity of envelopes and other
stationery stolen.

About
the same hour the dwelling of Mr. Stevenson, over Millspaugh’s
grocery, Main street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets, was
ransacked and property to an uncertain amount stolen.

Saturday
night an unknown man was knocked down up town and robbed of thirty
dollars of the new issue, his hat and some other articles.

The
above are the burglaries and robberies of the past forty-eight hours, as
far as known.

TUESDAYAPRIL 5, 1864THE
BOSTON HERALD

Our
Washington Correspondence.

Washington,
April 2.

Gen.
Grant has not yet returned from Fortress Monroe. It is claimed in
excellent circles here to-day, that his visit will effect a change in
the command of the Department of North Carolina, Gen. Smith superseding
Gen. Butler. The latter’s want of experience in the field is said to
be Gen. Grant’s reason for contemplating such a change, while at the
same time it indicates movements on the Peninsula. It is plain that
Grant’s desire to avail himself of the abilities of all unemployed
Generals will be carried out, for Gen. Buell, who has been without a
command for eighteen months, has just been ordered to one in East
Tennessee. While there are some sixty or seventy Major and Brigadier
generals without command, an official report to Congress shows that a
large number of Colonels are, as a consequence, commanding Brigades in
the several armies. There may be a remedy effected in this particular
without the army being burdened with rank by the creation of more
General officers. On the whole, General Grant is attending to all
details, great and small, calculated to promote the efficiency and
interest of all the armies.

The
enabling acts passed for the territories of Colorado, Nevada and
Nebraska, for the formation of State Constitutions and their admission
into the Union, have caused considerable comment in and out of Congress
in view of the well-known fact that neither territory really contains
the requisite population to be made a State. But there is another
remarkable feature of this legislation. In the admission of all new
States, heretofore, they have been required as territories to formaState Constitution and send it to Congress, whereupon, if it was
found to be Republican in form, it was adopted and the State admitted as
the Constitution of the United States provides. In the three new cases
mentioned, the enabling acts just passed by Congress require the State
Constitutions to be sent not to Congress but to the President, who in
October next is authorized to issue a proclamation admitting them to the
Union. In other words, Congress alone does not admit them, contrary to
every principle of law and justice. The reason for this very strange
proceeding is found in the fact that the Presidential election comes off
before Congress meets again, and if any “hocus pocus” can admit
these territories as States in time for their Presidential vote, which
in the Electoral College are equal to Massachusetts, New York and
Pennsylvania, well and good say the political influences which have
brought about so grave an infringement of Constitutional law.

Gen.
Meade’s explanation of his campaign in Maryland before the Committee
on the Conduct of the War yesterday is understood to have been perfectly
satisfactory. The allegations made by jealous officers in that
connection are therefore at least fully dissipated.

Gen.
Rawlings, Gen. Grant’s chief of staff, who is now in town, was a
lawyer in Galena, Illinois, before the war broke out. Capt. Badeau, an
old newspaper gentleman, has been selected by Gen. Grant as hismilitary Secretary.

•••••

By
the explosion and burning of the American cap and flask company at
Waterbury, Conn., on Friday last, nearly all the machinery in the United
States for making percussion caps was destroyed. Four girls employed in
the factory were burned to death.

Police
Court–Before Judge Rogers.

Monday,
April 4.

It
is not definitely known at the present time whether there is anything
“rotten in Denmark” or not, but we can bring an overwhelming array
of evidence that there was something rotten in the Court this morning,
something which must have been decaying ever since the solid foundations
of this earth were laid, and is now emphatically rotten.

The
Great Smell manœuvred shrewdly this morning. At first, only small and
feeble bodies of skirmishers entered and quickly retired, but as soon as
it was ascertained definitely how the ground lay, it summoned its
reserves, and pushed them forward in an overwhelming array, and at last
it entered itself, having assumed form and shape, but its auxiliaries
had done the work, and there was naught left for it to do but to call
off its victorious forces. Those whose eyes were favored by the sight of
this King of Odors will not soon forget it. It assumed the form of a
man, an aged man, a man with whitened locks, bent and gaunt, anddecrepit, with shrivelledlegs
and arms, and on whose face was a dark and greasy scum. By a careful
glance, one could see the smell radiating from him in waves, like the
radiation of heat from a furnace, and when said rays obtained a near
proximity, every sense informed you that they were palpable and real;
that they were no phantasies.

The
windows were lowered and doors opened, and for a while a fierce battle
raged between pure, life-giving air, and its incarnate and demonic
enemy, and if the awful order had not voluntarily retreated, the issue
would have been doubtful. The remembrance of this horrible essence seems
more like the shadowy vagaries of some dreadful night-mare, than a
reality; one’s stomach rolls and heaves in disgust at the retrospect,
and your nostrils involuntarily contract at the bare imagination.

That
thing who personified the Deity of Stinks had a name, James McGrath, but
this name is a misnomer; he should have one more in accordance with his
elevation. He was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in the House
of Industry as a common vagabond. He should first be exposed in an iron
cage to a perpetual shower on the highest summit of the Himalaya
Mountains, for a term of seven years, with a wind of the velocity of
three hundred miles an hour constantly whistling through his garments,
and then he might possibly be a fit subject for a reformatory
institution; but we pray, in the name of a common humanity, that he may
not be lugged into the Court again during the nineteenth century.

•••••

Officers
Punished for Enlisting Minors.

Cincinnati,
April 4.–An order from the War Department to the Provost Marshal
General of Ohio, discharging from the U. S. service four privates
belonging to different regiments, for the reason that they were of
insufficient age, being under 18, has been received. The order directs
that the expenses of their enlistment be deducted from the pay of the
offices concerned in the examination and muster, one-half to be deducted
from the pay of the Surgeon who examined, and one-half from the pay of
the officer who mustered them into service.

WEDNESDAYAPRIL 6, 1864THE
NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT & GAZETTE

“Miscegenation.”

This
new word for amalgamation is
the title of a book or pamphlet recently contributed to the Abolition
literature of the day. It advocates the mingling of the Negro with the
white, and declares that the so-called “Republican” party is
committed to the revolting doctrine. The writer says:

“When
the President proclaimed emancipation, he proclaimed also the mingling
of the races. The one follows the other as surely as noonday follows
sunrise.

“And,
now, behold! the great Republican party has merged into the little
Abolition party. The drop has colored into the bucket full. There are
only two parties now, the Abolition, which is in effect the party of
miscegenation; and behind them, that contemptible crowd who fear the
South, and have no policy for the North but expediency. Why did
Abolitionism swallow Republicanism? Because it was founded on principles
that approach nearer the truth.

“All
that is needed to make us the finest race on earth, is to engraft upon
our stock the Negro element which Providence has placed by our side on
this continent. Of all the rich treasure of blood vouchsafed to us, that
of the Negro is most unlike any other that enters into the composition
of our national life.

“If
we will not heed the demands of justice, let us at least respect the law
of self -preservation. Providence has kindly placed on the American
soil, for his own wise purpose, four millions of colored people. They
are our brothers, our sisters. By mingling with them, we become more
powerful, prosperous and progressive; by refusing to do so we become
feeble, unhealthy, narrow-minded, unfit for the nobler offices of
freedom, and certain of early decay.

“The
white race which settled in New England will be unable to maintain its
vitality as a blonde people.

“They
need the intermingling of the rich tropic temperament of the Negro to
give warmth and fullness to their natures. They feel the yearning and do
not know how to interpret it.”

Here
we have this nasty doctrine of
amalgamation proclaimed as a part of the Republican creed. The
Republican papers and leaders dare not deny the truth of this
representation, but will labor to conceal and palliate the revolting
character of the doctrine. But this book, like Helper’s “Crisis,”
will soon be openly acknowledged as the Republican bible; and we
therefore quote from it the following propositions to enable our readers
to see to what length this doctrine is carried:

1.
Since the whole human race is of one family, there should be in a
republic no distinction of political or social rights on account of
color, race or nativity.

2.
The doctrine of human brotherhood implies the right of white and black
to intermarry.

3.
The solution of the Negro problem will not be reached in this country
until public opinion sanctions a union of the two races.

4.
As the Negro is here and cannot be driven out, there should be no
impediment to the absorption of one race in the other.

5.
Legitimate unions between whites and blacks could not possibly have any
worse effect than the illegitimate unions which have been going on more
than a century at the South.

6.
The mingling of divers races is proved by all history to have a positive
benefit to the progeny.

7.
The Southern rebellion is caused less by slavery than by the base
prejudice resulting from distinction of color, and perfect peace can
come only by a cessation of that distinction through an absorption of
the black race by the white race.

8.
It is the duty of anti-slavery men everywhere to advocate the mingling
of the two races.

9.
The next presidential election should secure to the blacks all their
social and political rights; and the provocative party should not flinch
from their conclusions fairly deducible from their own principles.

10.In
the millennial future the highest type of manhood will not be white or
black with white in marriage will help the human family the sooner to
realize its great destiny.

After
drawing a sad picture of the degeneration of the white race,
particularly in New England, the writer says:

“It
is only by the infusion into their very system of the vital forces of a
tropic race that they may regain health and strength. We must accept the
facts of nature. We must become a yellow skinned, black haired
people–in fine, we must become miscegens if we would sustain the
fullest results of civilization.”

Such
is the last phase of Abolitionism, for let it not be imagined that the
author of this pamphlet is alone in his views. On the contrary, it is a
melancholy truth that they are endorsed by such shining lights of
radicalism as Wendell Phillips, Theodore Tilton, and Parker Pillsbury,
together with the strong-minded women who associate with that class of
politicians. It is palliated by Horace Greeley and many other leading
Republicans and by papers of wide influence, while by none of the
influential Republican organs is it repudiated and denouncedas its abhorrent and disgusting nature demands. Wendell Phillips
says:

“I
have no hope for the future, as this country has no past, and Europe has
no past, but in that sublime mingling of races which is God’s own
method of civilizing and elevating the world.”

We
have before said, what daily developments tend to corroborate, that this
disgusting doctrine has to-day more advocates than Abolitionism had
twenty years ago, and there is not half the reason to doubt that it will
become the creed of the Republican party that there was then, that
Abolitionism would be openly proclaimed as their creed. This book bears
the endorsement of a number of radical leaders, and we look to its
becoming the openly avowed doctrine of the Republican party at no
distant day. The real leaders of that party, not satisfied with boldly
violating and nullifying the Constitution for the Negro’s sake–not
content with plunging the country into civil war and sweeping away all
the safeguards of white men’s right to secure a a ruinous freedom to
the Negro–not content with demoralizing the whole community and
bringing ruin upon a whole people in the effort to place the Negro upon
political equality with white men–are now bent upon forcing upon the
country the disgusting and revolting practice of amalgamation, “the
sublime mingling” of the negroes and the white. To this consummation
they have come back at last, and openly; and this is the issue hat white
men have got to meet. It is useless for men to attempt to laugh down
this assertion. Let them look back and see how persistently and
indignantly the Republican leaders and papers, even as late as two years
ago, denied and repudiated the idea that abolitionism was or ever could
be the creed of their party. Yet what do we now see? So it will be with
“miscegenation;” it will yet become the openly avowed doctrine of
the Republican party, as it is now of the men who shape the creed and
policy of that party.

THURSDAYAPRIL 7,
1864THE
PITTSFIELD SUN (MA)

The War News.

It
is stated that a large force of rebels is concentrating at pound Gap,
under Buckner. It is supposed that an extensive foray into Kentucky is
intended.

Rebel
deserters who have come into Knoxville sate that Longstreet’s baggage
has been sent back to Richmond, and that his whole force is under
marching orders.

It
is said that Johnston is reinforcing Lee.

A
successful expedition has been made up the Red River, at Natchitoches,
twenty miles above Alexandria, La., which resulted in the capture of
about two hundred of the rebel cavalry. The water in the river is
rising, which will greatly facilitate the operation of gunboats above
that point. A column of General Banks’s corps has passed through
Opelousas, La.

•••••

A
Contrast.—The entire value of land and other property in
the United States is estimated at $6,000,000,000. We have contracted a
debt of $2,000,000,000 within the short period of three years Mr. Chase
has asked appropriations to the amount of $8,000,000, and other
expenditures will swell that sum to $1,000,000,000. Hence at the end of
the present fiscal year, one-half of the value of the property in the
United States of every description will have been expended by the
Government at Washington.

The
debt of England is a little over $4,000,000,000–the value of property
of every description is $30,000,000,000; in other words, the debt of the
United States, at the end of 1864, will have risen to one-half the value
of the whole wealth of the country, while that of England is only about
one-eighth of the real wealth of the country. There is another
difference of almost equal consideration. The interest on our debt is 7
and 8 per cent, on that of England 3 per centum.3–Lynn
Bay State.

A
Mud Embargo on the Potomac.—The
Herald’s Alexandria dispatch
of yesterday says a brief visit to the Army of the Potomac resulted in
the discovery of nothing new. It has rained there seven out of the last
ten days, and the camps are in a most horrible condition. It will take
four weeks of sunshine to dry the ground so as to allow any part of the
Army to change its base. The reorganization of the army is nearly
effected, and the troops are becoming reconciled to the new order of
things.

Revolutionary
Pensioners.—The
following is an official list of the living Revolutionary pensioners,
furnished from the Pension Office:

James
Barham, on the St. Louis, Missouri roll, $22.33 per annum; born in
Southampton county, Virginia, May 18, 1764, age 99 years and 9 months.

John
Goodnow, on the Boston, Massachusetts roll, at $16.67 per annum; born in
Sudbury, Middlesex county, Massachusetts, January 30, 1762; age 102 years
and 1½ months.

Amaziah
Goodwin, on Portland, Maine roll, at $28.33; born in Somersworth, Strafford
county, New Hampshire, February 16, 1759, age 105 years.

William
Hutchings, on Portland, Maine roll, at $21.66; born in York, York county,
Maine (thenMassachusetts), in
the year 1764.

Adam
Link, on Cleveland, Ohio roll, at $30 per annum; born in Washington county,
Pennsylvania, age 102 years.

Benjamin
Miller, on the Albany, New York roll, at $23.54 per annum, born in
Springfield, Massachusetts, April 4, 1761, age 99 years, 10½ months.

Alexander
Maroney, on the Albany, New York roll, at $8 per month; born in the year
1770, enlisted at Lake George, New York, age 94 years; enlisted by his
father, as he was young.

John
Pettingill, on the Albany, New York roll, at $50 per annum; was born in
Windham, Connecticut, November 30, 1776; age 87 years, 2½ months.

Daniel
Waldo, on the Albany, New York roll, at$96 per annum, born in Windham,
Connecticut, September 10, 1762; age 101 years, 5½ months.

Samuel
Downing (papers do not show his age), on the Albany, New York roll, at $80
per annum; served in the second New Hampshire regiment.

Lemuel
Cook, on the Albany, New York roll, at $100 per annum; no age or birth-place
given in papers.

Jonas
Gates, on the St. Johnsbury, Vermont roll, at $8 per month; papers mislaid.
Since found to be 101 years old.

•••••

To
the people at large, a state of war is a state of destruction–always was,
and always will be. But the few are becoming rich. Thirty years ago the rich
men were so scarce that their names were on all the lips, as Girard in
Philadelphia and Astor of New York; but now the men who are rated from one
to twenty millions of property are too numerous to mention; and in our
smaller towns the number who are assessed on from fifty thousand to a
million is large. It has been no uncommon thing to see men making from
twenty thousand to two or three millions annually since the war commenced,
says the Newburyport Herald.

FRIDAYAPRIL 8,
1864THE
CALEDONIAN (VT)

Northern
Cities to be Burned.

The
malignant and fiendish spirit which animates the rebels is strikingly
illustrated in a recent proposition of the Richmond Whig,
which, confessing that the ordinary modes of civilized warfare are
insufficient to accomplish the ruin of the North, advocates the burning
of Northern cities by hired incendiaries. Here is the diabolical
proposition:

“We
may not, it is true, be able to send a raiding party to dash into
Philadelphia of New York to do the work; nor have we artillery that can
carry Greek fire far enough to reach them–but we have that which will
go further than horsemen can ride, and will penetrate what the mightiest
artillery will make no impression on: we have money. A million of
dollars would lay in ashes New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago,
Pittsburg, Washington and all their chief cities, and the men to do the
business may be picked up by the hundred in the streets of those very
cities. If it should be thought unsafe to use them, there re daring men
in Canada, of Morgan’s and other commands, who have escaped from
Yankee dungeons, and who would rejoice at an opportunity of doing
something that would make all Yankeedom howl with anguish and
consternation.

“That
what we are saying may be given an still more practical turn, we will
add that we know and have talked with a man–a well-known officer in
the army, and every way competent and fit–who is ready and anxious at
once to proceed to Canada on this business.”

The
Whig further says that if the rebel government declines to adopt the
scheme, it “can as well be done by private enterprise as by the direction or
connivance of the government.”

•••••

Mosby
Outwitted.

On
Friday, March 25, Capt. E. B. Gore, of the Griswold light cavalry, was
sent out with 125 men in the neighborhoods of Berryville and Winchester
on a scout, and encamped at Millwood, some six or eight miles from the
former place. After the men had got their fires built, Sergeant
Wetherbee of company B, Corporal Simpson of company H and a private went
two two miles from camp to get supper at a farmhouse, and while waiting
for the long delayed tea, were surprised to find several revolvers
suddenly advance into the room, behind each pair of which was either
Col. Mosby, a rebel captain of a lieutenant, all rather determined men
with “shoot in their eyes,” who demanded the immediate surrender of
the aforesaid Yankees. The aim being wicked, the three twenty-firsters
saw they were “under a cloud,” and so quietly gave up the contest.5
Col. Mosby was much elated by his good fortune, and required his
prisoners to follow him supperless on his rounds to his headquarters at
Paris; the private, however, while pretending to get his horse, hid
himself in the hay and escaped, Mosby not daring to wait and hunt him
up. When they arrived at Paris, Col. Mosby dismounted and stepped into
the house where he has his headquarters, leaving his pistols in his
holsters. ->

The
lieutenant, with drawn revolver, watched the prisoner while the captain
endeavored to find an orderly to take the horses. Corporal Simpson, who
had been marking the road for future use, and had been long looking for
it, saw his chance and pretended to tie his horse, but really put his
foot into the stirrup of Mosby’s saddle and laying hold of one of the
overlooked pistols. The lieutenant detected his move and fired at him,
when S. shot him through the heart with the weapon he had secured. The
captain turned round and fired, and Col. Mosby came to the door to see
“what all that --- row was about,” just in time to hear a bullet
whiz unpleasantly close to his head that he had fired at him “just for
luck,” as he and his comrade left–yelling back: “Col. Mosby, how
do you like our style of fighting? We belong to the 21st New York.”
And away they went, leaving Col. Mosby dismounted and outwitted of his
best horse, saddle, pistols and overcoat, two Yankee prisoners, and with
at least one vacancy among his commissioned officers.

•••••

The Fight at Paducah.Pluck of the Negroes.

In
the fort at Paducah, Ky., so well defended against Forrest’s raiders,
there were about 250 recruits for a United States colored regiment, a
portion of the 16th Kentucky cavalry, without arms, and two companies of
the 122d Kentucky cavalry, without arms, and two companies of the 122d
Illinois infantry, in all about 500 men. It was the Negro regiment that
fought so well. They handled the artillery with great skill and their
bravery is on the tongues of all loyal men. One of the regiments in the
attack on the fort was the 3d Kentucky, Col. Thompson, who commanded a
brigade. This regiment was raised in Paducah three years ago by Col.
Tilghman, afterward brigadier general, and Col. Thompson, who was at the
time prosecuting attorney for the Paducah circuit. Col. Thompson was a
man of great influence and did more than any one else in recruiting the
regiment from the chivalry. This was its first visit home. Before the
attack was made, threats were freely made in the streets that they would
capture the fort and kill ever Negro in it. In the attack, this regiment
was in advance and suffered most. Colonel Thompson was literally torn to
pieces by a shot from a siege gun handled by colored men. These colored
men were native Kentuckians, and seven of them have offered up their
lives for their country. Is there not a stern justice in the fact that
many of these rebels paid the penalty of their treason at their own
door-posts by the hands of the despised native Kentuckians of African
descent. To Hon. Lucien Anderson of that district the credit is due of
getting permission to raise a regiment of blacks, which was done against
the opposition of the state authorities. To Col. Hicks, a noble war
democrat, and all the troops under his command, great credit is due for
their obstinate and successful defense.

SATURDAYAPRIL 9, 1864COLUMBIAN
WEEKLY REGISTER (CT)

Speech
of Jeff Davis.

The
following is the address of Jefferson Davis, delivered at the reception
in Richmond of returned prisoners from the North:

Friends
and Fellow Soldiers: I
welcome you to your native land. When I have heard of the sufferings you
have endured, and the indignities to which you have been subjected while
helpless prisoners of cruel captors, my heart has yearned for you with a
father’s deep sympathy and affectionate solicitude; it has burned with
indignation at your wrongs; but it has also pulsated with an unspeakable
pride and exultation at the fortitude you have evinced under the
severest trials, the integrity you have preserved amid the most
insidious temptations, and the calm trust you have never ceased to
repose in the righteousness of your country’s cause. (Cheers.)

A
color-bearer among you, when captured, secreted his battle-flag in his
bosom, and possessed it through a long captivity, until the proud moment
arrived when standing on the deck of a Confederate vessel, he gave its
folds, amid the cheers of his comrades, once more to the light of his
native skies. (Applause.) With a no less jealous care, through the long
weary months of vile imprisonment, you have kept entwined around your
heart of hearts, an unfading love of that sacred emblem, and your
faithful guardianship earns for you the admiration of your government,
and is hailed by the plaudits of your grateful countrymen.

You
have passed through many bitter trials. You know there are many more in
store for you. You have followed that flag with unfaltering steps on a
bloody field. You will follow it again with no less enthusiasm, as each
day makes it more precious, and sheds a new radiance on its bright
folds. To the spirit that has carried you forward to so many heights of
victory in the past, will be added the inspiration of new wrongs and
outrages, that will strengthen your arms and nerve your hearts to a
resistance that can overcome in the future. Your brother soldiers have
awaited your coming with painful anxiety. They will welcome you with
open arms. You will tell them, by the camp fires, of the horrors of your
long captivity. You will contrast your sufferings with the generosity
with which their prisoners have been treated at our hands, and, though
you have felt many times this broad distinction, you responded to the
sentiments of your comrades at home, that we must never forget what is
due ourselves as a civilized people, though the enemy have nothing to
claim.

Your
words will excite them to an unconquerable determination. They will
arouse you to the highest pitch of martial enthusiasm by accounts of
their glorious deeds in your absence. Together you will be stimulated to
renewed exertion until you plant our banner on the heights of Southern
Independence and deck it with the rich fruits and fragrant flowers of an
enduring peace. (Applause.)

You
will find your families suffering less than you have been led to
suppose. You will find much of our territory devastated, but the people
still true to the spirit of ’76. (Applause.) You will find the old
State of Virginia, baring her bosom to the storm, with lion heart and
eagle eye, defiant as ever. So long as she has a crust you will share
her hospitality. (Cheers.) After a short respite you will be called
again to the front. I know you will come. (Applause.)

May
God bless you all.

•••••

New
Discovery in the Manufacture of Paper.—M.
Bardoux, a manufacturer of Poitiers, is said to have made a discovery
which will effect a revolution in the manufacture of paper. He has
succeeded in manufacturing paper from various descriptions of timber,
such as oak, walnut, pine and chestnut, and from vegetables, and with
the paper exhibited at the office of the Journal des Inventeurs.
M. Bardoux asserts that his invention will cause a revolution of from
sixty to eighty per cent in the price of paper.

The
Working-Women of New York.

A
large meeting was held at the Cooper Institute, with a view to devise
measures for ameliorating the condition of the working women of New York
city. The subject was presented in an address which detailed the
extortions practiced upon laboring women, and the bitter hardships to
which they are subjected in consequence. Swindlers are extensively
engaged in the employment of female labor, and make it a regular
practice after getting all the work they can, to refuse payment on the
ground that it is poorly done or on some other pretext equally
frivolous. The victims of the cruel frauds which rob them of shelter and
bread have no recourse but submission. They are too obscure and poverty
stricken to enter upon measures pointing to the punishment of the
swindlers. But the frauds are now likely to be brought to judicial
investigation. Lawyers of character offer their services gratuitously to
aid in bringing the rascals to justice.

The
address gives statistics to show that the cost of living has doubled
since 1859, without bringing any corresponding advance in wages. It also
mentions a variety of employments suitable for females, such as
engraving, type-setting, telegraph operating, &c., and urges their
introduction so far as possible into these branches of industry. Women
are advised to enter household services as a sure mode of securing
comfortable homes and kindly treatment.

Articles
manufactured by females were exhibited to the meeting, and the prices
for the work announced. It appears that the wages of laborers range from
80 cents to 17 cents per day. A few samples show the terrible character
of the oppression:

“For
making a pair of cotton drill drawers, with buckles, button holes,
straps and strings, a sewing woman is paid four and one-sixth cents. A
smart woman, using a sewing machine, can make four pairs in a long
day–working, that is to say, from seven in the morning till nine at
night. For such a day’s work the reward is sixteen and three-quarter
cents. Another sewing woman receives five and a half cents for making
large canton flannel drawers by hand, each pair containing two thousand
stitches, and having button holes, eyelet holes, buttons, stays and
strings; but this poor woman has to furnish her own thread. She is able
to make two pair of such drawers in a very long day, which includes a
considerable part of the night.”

No
community can boast of its civilization, that permits such oppression on
helpless labor. It may raise larger sums of money for foreign missions,
build costly churches, and endow colleges–but it will bring the
greater damnation for allowing such things as the above. Women, at
least, owe it to their sex, if not to the cause of humanity, to make
their influence felt in this matter; for hunger and want are terrible counselorseven to the best of mankind. There is no better philanthropy in
this world, than that which toils for the relief of honest poverty.

1The
lion and unicorn appear on the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom,
meaning that some of the troupe claimed British citizenship and
exemption from the rebel draft.

2Read
“occupants” for “inmates;” there is no indication that this is
anything but a private dwelling.

3In
the fall of 2103, net worth of the United States was
$91,720,000,000,000, while debt was $17,075,000,000,000–or 18.6%
(almost one-fifth) of worth. Amazingly, as far as the ratio of worth to
debt goes, we are doing much better than 150 years ago.

4Total
of 5,383,090.

5
The Griswold Light Cavalry was designated the 21st New York Cavalry
Regiment.